▪ I. yep, int.
(7 yeap.)
A call to urge on a horse.
| 1690 Dryden Don Sebastian i. i. (1692) 15 To your paces villain, amble, trot, and gallop!—Quick about there.—Yeap. 1869 Lonsdale Gloss., Yep! a word of command to horses. |
▪ II. yep
repr. a dial. (esp. U.S.) or vulgar pronunc. of yes; cf. nope.
| 1891 Harper's Mag. Nov. 970 He gently and peacefully murmured, ‘Yep’. 1897 Kipling Capt. Cour. x. 222 ‘Like Lorry Tuck?’ Harvey put in. ‘Yep.’ 1905 [see yah adv.]. 1907 J. W. Schultz My Life as an Indian xxv. 284 ‘You must cut your hair.’ ‘Yep.’..‘An' quit gamblin.’ ‘Yep.’ 1926 J. Galsworthy in Scribner's Mag. Dec. 581/1 Their ‘Yeahs!’ and their ‘Yeps!’ Americans no longer said ‘Yes’ it seemed! 1962 E. Birney Sel. Poems (1966) iv. 99 Yep ain't nothin we kin do. 1967 Listener 19 Jan. 96/3 ‘Would you like a cigarette?’ I got a typically aggressive ‘Yep’. 1977 Time 16 May 39/2 Yep, I let the American people down. 1979 R. Jaffe Class Reunion (1980) i. vi. 74 ‘Oh? You got a new car?’..‘Yep... Look out the window.’ |